On May 5, 1893, just two months into his second term as president, Grover Cleveland noticed a rough spot on the roof of his mouth. It was near his molars on the left side—his “cigar chewing side.” He tried to ignore it, but by June the lesion had grown so bothersome that he asked his physician, Joseph D. Bryant, to take a look at it. Bryant determined the growth was cancerous and recommended that it be removed immediately.
But Cleveland didn’t want the public to know he was ill. At the time, the nation was mired in an economic depression. If it came to be known he had cancer, Cleveland believed, the stock market would crash.
So began one of the most audacious cover-ups in the annals of the American presidency. Cleveland, a 138-foot steam yacht owned by his friend, a tycoon named Elias Benedict. Cleveland had logged more than 50,000 miles on the , mostly fishing in Long Island Sound and off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His presence on the boat would arouse no suspicions whatsoever. The surgical team and equipment would be boarded surreptitiously before the president. The operation would take place while the boat cruised from New York City to Gray Gables, the president’s summer home on Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.
